Before the Dawn
by detachablecape
Summary: "...we made another, not another purge child, but another one of you, in an attempt to achieve the change we needed within Ilegenes..." Post ILEGENES Volume 5 (end of first manga). Fon is harboring a dark secret, and it's not just the fact that he is AI. There is someone from his past, named Iris. And they are not going to stop until they have achieved their goal. Shounen-ai.


**Setting: Set Post-ILEGENES: The Genetic Sodom Manga, but before the sequel or the light novels. **

**Characters: (From the first manga) Fon, Jake, Nicholas, Crudup, Janis, ES, Andrew, Philip, Warren. **

**Warning: Shounen-ai. AU since it's its own arc. **

**Disclaimer: All of the deep intensity of ILEGENES is none of my own doing. Only this fic, and not the characters or the plot this deviates from, is of my own creation! : )**

_We, eight scientists and I, created you. Project F, for Fortinbras. You, of five other purge children, were to rid this island of its corruption…_

Fon jolted awake. Through the thick canopy of his sleepy black eyelashes he could see the first rays of dawn peeking through the window of the room he and Jacques shared.

_Project F. _

Fon still felt lingering tiredness, but knew the voice of his father, of the terrible truth he had learned a few months ago, would await his return to sleep, and so he sat up.

"…Fon? Another bad dream…?"

He turned to see the sleepy face of his dorm mate watching him from the bed beside his. Jacques lay sprawled casually under the covers, his blonde hair tossed haphazardly on the pillows.

Fon smiled slightly at the sight, and his friend's concern away with his hand.

"It's alright, Jacques, go back to sleep…"

Jacques muttered something incoherently and his eyes flittered shut. Fon watched him fall back into the arms of sleep with a growing sense of something painful in his chest.

Jacques was so free, so unattached to the torments of responsibility and the honesty of those who created him. Fon thought he might have even grown to hate the freedom and happiness Jacques possessed, were it not for the fact that Jacques chose to use this freedom to bring happiness to others.

It was kind, and good, and brought about something simultaneously painful and beautiful within Fon.

This was the feeling he got from Jacques, and he wouldn't give it up for the world.

It had been many months since Fon had murdered the man who murdered the ones he loved. Many months since Fon had almost leapt from the highest building the military school offered. Months since he had heard from ES, months since he had visited Jacques' family, months since they had agreed that whatever unspeakable thing Fon had gone through, they would go through the future together.

It felt like a lifetime ago, really, because Fon knew that what he was experiencing now was something akin to that of a new life.

A life of his own.

And yet, although he knew one day he would have to tell Jacques the truth, and within him Fon knew Jacques would be okay with it – okay with the fact that Fon was AI – Fon couldn't bring himself to tell his friend.

Because, throughout Fon's new revelations about himself, throughout the Elephant Tusk's growing threat against the corrupt government, and the group's strengthened bonds to each other…a lingering, dark thought nagged at the back of Fon's mind.

He wasn't alone. Not just because he was surrounded by friends, but because of that one last, dark truth father had told him.

_When it seemed like you, Fortinbras, were not going to bring the project's goal to fruition…_

Fon shut his eyes against the growing appearance of the dawn and bowed his head into his blanketed lap.

_…we made another, not another purge child, but another one of you, in an attempt to achieve the change we needed within Ilegenes…_

_…a clone. Iris. _

**Dun, dun, dun! IRIS!**

**So, what do you think? **

**I'm honored to partake in the small pool of fics here in the Ilegenes fandom! Although this fic will be very angsty, as per the manga's original atmosphere, there shall be some fluffy times throughout, and happy times at the end! : ) **

**Reviews are love! **


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